I am a surviving widower of a veteran and calpers and social security contributor. with dependents. how can I maximize my benefits?

Hi,

In most cases when a person is potentially eligible for both Social Security widow(er) and retirement benefits, the best strategy is to claim the lower benefit as soon as you can start drawing the benefit and then switch to the higher benefit when it reaches it's highest rate. But, if you have children who are eligible to draw benefits on one or both parent's record it can complicate matters. And, if you receive a government pension based on your earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes it will could prevent you from drawing widow(er) benefits or at least reduce your benefit rate.

You should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to explore and compare all of your various options in order to determine the filing strategy that would be optimal in your case.

Best, Jerry